Koi Pond

"Koi Pond"
12" x 16"
Pastel on black canvas panel
I set my camera on the dock, nearly at water level with a school of goldfish and koi lolling just below the surface, to document this scene. They heard my footsteps on the wooden platform and gathered in hopes of being fed. 

I began this painting in hopes of painting one of the 24" koi in the foreground, but the scale was so unbelievable that it looked wrong. So I painted only the ten inch fish, which repeated the foliage across the pond nicely. Once again, this is the Anderson Japanese Gardens, the largest Japanese garden in the country, I learned today.

Carol

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Pond Pads

"Pond Pads"
14" x 11"
Pastel on canvas panel
I've painted this scene at least twice before. I love the dark shadows and the reflections in this pond. I've wanted to paint it with pastel, so now I have. It was as fun as I hoped it would be. 

I'm testing old subject matter and new alike, with my black canvas and hard pastels. I'm also wearing nitrile gloves to keep my hands from looking like a car mechanic's.  Oh, what fun!!

Carol

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Garden Pond

"Garden Pond"
12" x 9"
Pastel on canvas panel
I have yet to see this pond reflect blue. It's always muddy brown as I cross the bridge that spans from the parking lot to the island that is the Chicago Botanic Garden.  I've photoshopped it, posterized it and tried to make it prettier than it is, but nobody would recognize it if it were pristine. Strangely muddy is how I perceive this body of water that surrounds one of the most beautiful places in Chicagoland. 

The closeup flowers hang from containers on the bridge. The flowers in them change with the season. This was the view from August, seven years ago.  I always photograph from this bridge. Every trip to the Garden begins or ends with this vista.

Carol

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Come Home

"Come Home"
5" x 7"
Oil on hardboard
There are places without houses that feel like home. Where comfort comes easily, thoughts never roil or distort. This place is one of them, and tonight I found comfort in painting this place that beckons … come home. 

Here's my favorite Colorado pond again. It brings me such comfort and joy.

Love,
Carol

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Warm, Wet and Wild

"Warm, Wet and Wild"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
Okay, it may be a bit suggestive, but what would you have titled the painting, if you had painted a couple dozen warm-weather water lilies in the wild?  Uh-huh.  I thought so. 

This is from a lake up in Wisconsin where my daughter's family has a summer cabin. It's the place where I get to kayak down close to the source.  It's about time to go there again… once the lake thaws.

Carol

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My Quiet Place

"My Quiet Place"
5" x 7"
Oil on hardboard 
Near my home is a place where waterlilies toss their leaves about like breadcrumbs on water. It's a quiet place, but certainly not a drab one when the sky is strutting her stuff. 

I've painted this pond several times before, but it always gives me such comfort when I do, that I revisit my photos periodically.

Carol

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Slice of Light

"Slice of Light"
5" x 9"
Pastel on sanded paper 
Here's a quick study of a photo I happened on today. I liked the light slicing across the center of the piece enough to paint it again, as a larger piece. 

I saw the Fourth Biennial National Juried Exhibition of the Chicago Pastel Painters on Friday. It was enchanting to see 100 exhibition-worthy pieces in person. I plan to attend again before the show is over on January 4th. One piece in particular, "Flowescent Lighting" by Mike Barret Kolasinsik stole the show. He makes paper sing … arias!  If you're in the Chicagoland area, the exhibit is a "must see" at The Art Center in Highland Park.

Carol

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Sunday With Daniel

"Sunday With Daniel"
9" x 12"
Pastel on paper
I went with my painting pals to the Daniel Wright Woods again, but this time, instead of taking my oil paints, I brought a box of pastels and a pad of colored paper. I began painting on the textured side of a sheet and hated it. I untaped it, folded it and stuffed it into my Ed Hardy backpack.  I flipped the paper to the smoother side and redrew what I had already planned. The guys had a good head start on me, but I managed to finish all but a few waterlilies by quitting time.  

I'm enjoying pastels about as much as any medium I've tried.  Even though I've posted others, this is my second pastel painting.

Carol

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Fel Pro Pond

"Fel Pro Pond"
10" x 8"
Oil on hardboard



















I painted en plein air today in the county west of here. It was the perfect summer morning and the best place to stand was also lit beautifully. The wildlife around the pond acclimated to my presence, after a bit.  The turtles climbed back on the logs, frogs on the grassy bank and two sand hill cranes even made an appearance. They are TALL birds ... a foot shorter than I am!  

 I saw signs of more leaves changing color today. Soon this season of green paintings will be in the past. I just hope I can bundle up enough to stand in the cold to enjoy what's coming.

Carol

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Closer ... Still

"Closer ... Still"
8" x 10"
Oil on hardboard
When I finished the first painting, the light had changed and I moved closer to the pond, cropping out many of the golden weeds.  I focused on the purples in the landscape and enjoyed the stillness of the beautiful summer morning. 

This was a thirty-minute painting. It doesn't have the detail my paintings in the style of Andrew Orr have, but it looked finished to me, so I stopped.

Carol

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Daniel Wright Pond Again

"Daniel Wright Pond Again"
8" x 10"
Oil on canvas panel  
In the nine o'clock hour this morning, this little pond near my home reflected colors other than green. From this time on, we will be noticing more orange creeping into the landscape. And a fair share of it creeping across the pond, in the form of some sort of scum, as well. Corn flowers dotted the foreground and so did a few magenta and peach-colored leaves. It's changing, I tell you. 

Carol

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Flooded Field

"Flooded Field"
5" x 7"
Oil on canvas panel
As I drove to my destination in Iowa a month ago, I passed numerous fields that still had standing water after the late June rains. They were impromptu lakes with ragged, dirt beaches.  I enjoyed seeing their reflective bodies, but the farmers probably didn't share my sense of delight. 

Little landscapes are taking the place of small sky paintings as I work on house portraits and a large "Toulouse Your Moose... " painting to be juried into a show in a few weeks.  Enjoy them, there will be more.

Carol

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Devil's Thumb Pond

"Devil's Thumb Pond"
11" x 14"
Oil on wrapped canvas
Devil's Thumb Ranch in Winter Park, Colorado is on the Continental Divide and has a small pond on site.  It's one of my most favorite places to paint.  This particular piece is a commission for someone who was married at the ranch. "Best wishes for a long and happy union!"

Carol

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Sunday Morning

"Sunday Morning"
9" x 12"
Oil on canvas panel
We set up in a couple of different areas to chase the light that Sunday morning. First, as close to the car as possible, then on the other side of the poison ivy and finally in a cove where the wind wouldn't gnaw at my bare hands.  This is the view in the last location, but in reality there was only one rock. It wanted company.

I'll be painting a lot of trees this summer as I paint en plein air, using Andrew Orr's palette of colours.  I'm enrolled in Andrew's workshop at the end of this month in Iowa. No greens were squeezed in this exercise. Instead, I used Cad Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine and Burnt Umber.  A smidgen of Cad Scarlet warmed up some of the greens and the water.

Carol

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Daniel Wright Pond

"Daniel Wright Pond"
10" x 10"
Oil on hardboard
I painted today in the Daniel Wright Woods with friends. The week had been cold and grey, but this morning for our first excursion into painting en plein air, the universe saw fit to grant us a day worthy of our efforts.  Sun shone on the trees, the algae rimming the pond and our skin when we got to take off our jackets.

I hadn't painted outdoors in a year and a half. I felt clumsy and untrained. What was I thinking?  But that's the point. I need to get comfortable painting outdoors for the workshops I'll be taking in Iowa and Indiana this season.  I'll find my way back to my roots... painting the many shades of green indicative of summer in Illinois.

Carol

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Divide

"Divide"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
I came across a photo I took of the Continental Divide and felt like painting it again. I don't know how many times I've done it in the course of two and a half years since I've been there, but this little pond is one of my simple, favourite places. No jagged mountains, no rocky rivers, no canyons or wildlife.  Just a cute reflecting pond.

Carol

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